Spring Term Sports Report

By admin19th May 2017

St Thomas More has had a very successful Spring Term with regards to Sporting activities, both in and outside of school, in a mixture of different events. Please see the below updates for further information.

Year 7/8 girls are the U13 Gateshead Indoor Cricket winners. This took place at Gateshead Leisure Centre. Due to a lack of entries, two schools who did enter went automatically to the final, the winners going onto represent the borough in the Durham County round of this competition. STM faced Cardinal Hume, and on winning the toss, decided to bat first. Poor bowling and good shots from the STM batters saw us reach 102 runs in the allotted 8 overs. In return, Cardinal Hume managed 58 runs. This was due to accurate batting and excellent fielding, which included a number of very good catches.

Year 8 Girls Durham County Indoor Cricket Competition. This was held at Gateshead Leisure Centre on 22 March, involving 12 teams from around the County who had won their district round.

There were 3 groups of 4 teams who played a round robin competition to decide semi-finalists. STM were drawn against Red House, Stockton, Staindrop School, and High Tunstall. We defeated Red House and High Tunstall, but lost a high scoring game against Staindrop. This left us with a 2 -1 final ratio in our mini league, in which the top team went through to the semis, as well as the highest scoring second place from all the groups. We finished 2nd in our group, but unfortunately lost out on a semi-final place on number of runs scored in our group matches.

Overall, therefore, out of 12 teams, we finished 5th. This is an excellent result, especially considering that for a Year 8 event, 9 of the competing squad of 10, were from Year 7, which bodes well for next year’s event.

As always, the girls tried really hard and were a credit to the School. The players were:

The following pupils represented Durham at the Northern Inter-counties Cross Country on Saturday in Kirkby Stephen. As you can see they all performed brilliantly in races of up to 65 runners.

Y7

George McArthur – 22

Junior Girls

Rebecca Wren – 19

Cecelia Reid – 22

Intermediate Girls

Ishbel Speirs – 47

Senior Girls

Emily Gill – 43

Durham County Individual Schools’ Cross Country Cup. This was held at Emmanuel College on 15 March.

In the Durham County Individual Schools’ Cross Country Cup, held on 15 March, there was individual success for Rebecca Wren (2nd place) and Dan Joyce (2nd place) in the Junior Girls’ and Boys’ races. Top twenty finishes were also achieved by Esther Moffat (12), Lucy Thorpe (13) and Francesca Recchia (20) in the girls’ race, and Andrew Ranson (18) in the boys’ race. Furthermore, the girls came 3rd in the team race.

All 12 pupils who participated showed excellent resilience and effort, and were a credit to the School.

On Saturday 20 March, three of our pupils competed at the English Schools’ Cross Country Championship in Norwich, as part of the Durham County team. It is a national event with almost 350 competitors in each race.

Year 9 Daniel Joyce, ran in the Junior Boys race. He was 22nd and the first Durham team member to finish.

Michael Bessent and Luke Taylor did really well in the Tyne and Wear indoor rowing championships, coming first and second in the Y10 boys event (1519m and 1407m respectively) and then leading the Gateshead Y10 boys to victory in the relay (they were joined by a lad from Emmanuel, and Michael rowed twice!).

As they finished in top 4, they both qualified for the NE Region final which is at Durham University in March, as did Ethan King. In this event both Michael and Ethan won their races, with Luke coming 5th in his race.

U15s Aims and Outcomes Identify players who have the potential to progress through the player pathway and to be included in the U15 Talent Development Group (TDG) monthly sessions. These sessions are delivered in each of the four divisions by the DTDOs throughout the season for highlighted players. The Under 15s trial was a great day, with the players showing that they have been working hard on their skills and making the selection process very difficult. After long deliberations, we have selected the following North U15 squad.

Holly Thorpe was included in the U15 squad.

Chris Dellow and Richie Richardson were included in the U14 boys’ squad.

Will Hindle, Louis Robinson, Oscar Murphy and Lucas Straughan were included in the U13 boys’ squad.

In School matches, the U 13 team continue to go from strength to strength. Impressive results against Emmanuel and Cardinal Hume, in which the team scored 50+ points in each game was superseded by the semi-final of the TSSSA Cup against Newcastle School for Boys, held on Saturday, 11 March. A game in which it was felt would stretch the team, and see how much they had progressed over the a season, saw them score 5 tries in each half, and not concede. A 50 – 0 result was beyond expectation, and was a fabulous result. There was a truly team performance, and this bodes well for the future of Rugby in the School. The friendly season finished with a hard fought, but deserved victory over St Cuthberts. The final of the TSSSA Cup was held on Wednesday, 3 May, and the following report was produced:

Standing as the touch judge on the far side of the pitch from the very well populated East Stand of the Newcastle Falcons 1st team pitch, gives you the ability to watch and construct this piece.

This was the final of the TSSSA Rugby Under 13 Cup, played between St Thomas More, Blaydon, and Durham Johnston, a team we had not faced in the past. The setting was excellent, a 4G pitch played on by the best players the country, and other countries, have produced. And here they were, 36 boys, giving their all for their School, their families, and themselves, with coaches in close proximity to cajole them to higher levels.

STM have been outstanding this year, sweeping aside schools of various abilities, with ease. Yet, within 5 minutes, the skills of our opponents (with some hefty forwards to the fore) had edged them ahead with a well worked try. Things were not as they seemed. We had come up against a well organised and very skilful team. How would we react? Positively, thanks to the team’s never say die attitude. Frustrating missed tackles, and dropped passes, faded to the point where an equalizing try was inevitable. This happened, and towards the end of the match, a lead of 3 tries to 2, was taking STM to victory. And yet, one last push from Durham Johnston, brought the scores level. This was not expected, and a discussion amongst the coaches agreed upon a further 5 minutes each way, to bring the game to a conclusion. It was in this time, that the boys showed their true metal, as two further tries finished the match in STM’s favour.

The tries scored by Will Hindle (2), Chris Tolchard (2), and Harrison McGregor, were only the finishing touches made by a wonderful team effort, whereby every player in the squad played their part throughout the game. A 25 – 15 victory was just reward for the team’s efforts, against the best team we have faced this season, which was acknowledged by the large number of supporters from both schools, seated in the East Stand.

The coaches would like to thank the many parents and grandparents who turned up tonight, together with the 16 or so members of staff who attended. We would also like to thank those who sent good luck messages. It is highly important that we acknowledge the attributes of pupils who show their skills in various offerings (art, music, drama, sport) and that, where possible, we support them in their endeavours. I believe we do this well at STM.

To finish with, this a quote from a friend, who I invited to come and watch the boys. He is an ex rugby player and coach. He texted me with the following tonight – “Absolutely my pleasure (to attend the match), I thoroughly enjoyed a great game, and both sets of boys played hard and fair, and conducted themselves admirably”.

I cannot add more.

The under 14 season unfortunately petered out with matches being postponed due to poor weather, although a 45 – 10 victory over St Mary’s was due reward for their efforts over the season.

An under 12 tournament was held in the Sports Hall yesterday after school, involving two teams from STM, Durham Johnston and Whickham schools. Games were 10 minutes in duration. The scores were as follows:

Durham 6 Whickham 8

STM A 14 STM B 4

Durham 4 STM B 0

Whickham 0 STM A 12

Whickham 8 STM B 8

Durham 6 STM A 8

This meant STM A team were victors. Top scorers were Stephen Bessent with 18 points and Daniel Millican with 8 points. However, it was the all round play of the players of both STM teams that was pleasing to watch.

Many thanks to Lucy Wood (Year 10), Charis Gray, Andrew Mason, and Ethan King for helping with refereeing, scoring and timekeeping, and Miss Conway for lending her support. There were also a number of parents in attendance.

Under 12 – Last night our Year 7 football team played in the final of the County ‘Crompton and Harrison’ Cup, a competition we’ve only one once previously before in the competition’s history. Having needed penalty kicks to get through the last 4 games it was clear it would be a tight game against well-drilled opposition from St Joseph’s Hebburn and so it proved. However in the last 15 minutes of the game the resilience and work-rate of the St Thomas More players shone through leading to two well-deserved goals. The first a powerful, low strike from outside the box from Ethan Havery followed up by a well-timed header from a corner by David Newman. The game ended 2-0 leading to jubilant celebrations from the boys and the many parents who had made the trip to Darlington to watch the game. The boys involved were Steven Bessent, Joseph Bullerwell, Charlie Atkinson, Louis Davison, David Newman, Dylan Lawson, Adam Barrett, Joe Le Patoruel, Elliot McClen, Harry Cosgrove and Ethan Havery.

Following the culmination of the league programme before Christmas, this half term has focussed on cup competitions for our year 7 footballers. An incredible run of penalty shoot-out victories propelled the boys to the semi-final of the Tyneside Cup and final of the Durham County Cup, a hard-fought victory over strong local rivals Cardinal Hume particularly notable on our journey. In the Tyneside semi-final our run of penalty victories was brought to a halt, losing 5-4 on spot kicks following a game we should have won in normal time. However the climax of our season was one on a celebratory note with an outstanding 2-0 win over St Joseph’s, Hebburn in the ‘Crompton and Harrison’, Durham County Cup. This is only the second time we have won this competition in its history and only the 5th win of a county cup by any St Thomas More Football team so a very notable achievement, well done to all the boys who have been involved. A report can be seen above.

Year 9

Last term the Year 9 football team managed to win the Gateshead Schools U14 futsal tournament, beating Thomas Hepburn in a final 7-3 after 2 previous nights of round robin qualifiers and a West/East finals night.

The boys went onto represent us at County level but were beaten by Durham in the county final.

The boys have reached the Gateshead Schools Cup final to be played on Thursday 11th May at 6pm, at Swalwell Juniors FC.

Year 11

The Y11s played the County Cup semi-final against Lord Lawson on Monday 3 April. The boys assured me they were going to get thrashed, as Lord Lawson have ‘three really brill Academy players’.

As I walked the (what felt like) two miles from the car park, I could see the match had just kicked off. By the time I had then climbed the hundred steps up to the pitch, the match was restarting. STM had already gone 1-0 up and I’d missed the goal. By the time I tweeted that they were winning, Matt Law had scored his second. Another soon followed from a Sam Joyce free kick, that Beckham would have been proud of, and then another from Matt. It was 4-1 at half time, and the boys were pumped up after being denied a penalty, from an obvious foul on Matty Miller in the box.

Our boys cruised through the second half, scoring two more, from Joyce and Bedford. Not even their big No 16 barging MOM Matt Law off the pitch and forcing him to come off could stop us. Final score 6-1.

They went through to the final at Maiden Castle, Durham on Thursday, 8 May, where they defeated Biddick School, Washington by 5 – 0. This was a comprehensive victory, as they outplayed their opponents in all areas.

The squad was as follows:

Euan Gray Matthew Turner

Cameron Rowland George Watts

Evan Peareth Anthony Innes

Sam Joyce Matthew Miller

James McClead Elliot Bedford

Matthew Slee Matthew Law

Jack Littlewood Marcus Hall

Kieran Lee

6th Form

The 6th form football team beat St Leonard’s, 3-0, in the final of the county cup. This is the first time the School has won this competition.

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St Thomas More Partnership of Schools is a company limited by guarantee and registered in England and Wales under company Registration number No. 7900532. The Company is an exempt charity. The registered office address is Croftdale Road, Blaydon, Tyne & Wear NE21 4BQ>